University Daily Kansan / Thursday, March 31, 1988
9
Living
Jacque Janssen, arts/features editor
Cheap fun helps beat spring stress
By Michael Carolan
Kansan staff writer
Those final exams are creeping up.
With just a month left to catch up in
class and begin studying for finals,
you might find yourself feeling a bit
uneasy.
You might lose part of your appetite or find less time to eat dinner. You might wake in awake and think you hear your biology professor whispering, "Study" or "It's F City for you."
You might find yourself stopping in the midst of a math problem and uncontrollably screaming at the top of your lungs. Worse, you might feel like running down a hallway as fast as your dog, shnashing your head into a brick wall.
exams. It's not caused just by final exams. Everyday living is stressful. From rocky relationships to failing a pop quiz to realizing that you're graduating and haven't found a job, stress permeates all parts of life.
There is no telling how many times a day students experience stress,
"People can have stress simply crossing the street or failing a test." Duiley said. "At low levels, people
are feeling stress an of the time. Sherrill Robinson, a graduate assistant at the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, said stress in the springtime could be the worst sometimes.
a day students experience stress, said Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, because students deal with different levels of stress in many ways.
It's a time when things are changing. "Robinson said. 'People are graduating and moving away from friends. Final exams and midterms
are things that cause stress in students. Relationships can take different turns.
"When people are facing some eminent change in life, the change by itself will cause stress."
Richard Nelson, associate professor in the department of counseling psychology, said students needed a release valve for their stress.
"Stress is cumulative," Nelson said. "It just builds up over time. But if you build in fun time, doing things you enjoy, then the system can deal more effectively with the stress."
Many students don't know how to spend their time releasing that stack of books.
"If you aren't nice to yourself, who will be?" she said. "It is their mind and body. If they don't take care of themselves, emotionally, physically or not, no one else is. People that love themselves are good to themselves."
"Many students are not doing anything fun or know what fun is," he said. "All you do is work, go to school and study. It is very important for students to remove themselves from the stresses of being a college student. If you don't build in any enjoyment time, you let those stresses build up."
Robinson said that many students weren't nice to themselves often enough.
buildup once in a while.
Because spring is here and the semester is winding down to an end, now is a good time to begin being nice to yourself, not just because finals are a month away and you've skipped class to go to the lake for the last few weeks but because everyone needs to relax and alleviate stress
Here are just a few fun, easy and cheap activities to treat yourself to now and then.
Let's go fly a kite
Kite-flying. Every little kid does it, and every adult wishes they could do it more often. It's controlling the wind on the end of a string. It's the enchantment of flight and the fascination of the sky.
Ever wonder why the other guy's kite stays aloft longer than yours and avoids the trees and power lines you seems attracted to? Here are some examples. An anime-clopedia Americana that some would be kite fliers never learn:
For those who prefer store-boughts, there are some with fantastic designs and swirling colors on materials such as nylon, satin and plastic. There are kites with comet-like tails. There's the dragon, the diamond, the tetrahedron, the centineed and Chinese disk.
Many of these kites are much more complex than the traditional "bat kite," the plastic kind with two fiery eaves.
Then there's the homemade kite that every kid's grandfather helped put together and later tried to save a tumbled into the only tree in the fifties.
It just takes paper, glue, two thin wooden rods and plenty of string to ride the sun on sunny Sunday afternoon.
Don't run with a kite to launch it.
Stand with your back to the wind.
Have a friend stand about 100 feet away,
holding the kite pointed upward.
As your friend lets go, pull
the line in with a hand-over-hand motion, and off the kite will soar.
Pulling on the string will cause the kite to rise. Letting go will allow the wind to carry the kite away but will cause the kite to lose altitude. Combining the two — pulling, letting out and pulling again in a pumping motion — lets your kite fly high and far.
the southern sands about this time of year to make their annual pilgrimage to the sacred tanning grounds. But the holy rays of the sun can be found in your own back yard.
The Midwest sun is waiting just beyond your door and is about 500 times less expensive. Just be sure you have the ritualistic "Walkman" or "blaster." Don't forget the fashion magazine, the appropriate factor in the fold-out chart, the blanket and the cooler of cold beer or ice tea.
Relax, read a little, absorb some rays and feel good about your newly bronzed body.
Discover the parks
Lawrence has plenty of parks for people to enjoy. A map from the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department on the fourth floor of City Hall lists all 30. Ask your neighbor if you can borrow his Labrador, or better yet, his 5-year-old, and take a stroll.
Read for pleasure
Camp in your backyard
People hate reading what they're forced to. When reading for classes becomes too laborious, relieve the pressure of those boring texts by picking up a good suspense novel, a trashy romance or anything else your professor would consider mindless, and enjoy some reading for a change.
Dad won't be there to help set up the tent, but you can rent one from Wilderness Discovery Camping Equipment Rental Service sponsored by Student Union Activities for as little as $2.75 a night.
If you want a little more adventure, rent a four-man tent for a weekend for just $7.50, pile the friends, barbecue and coolers in the car; and enjoy one of the six campgrounds at Clinton Lake.
Feeling cramped up in your dorm room or need to get out of the house? There are endless possibilities in one's backyard. It's the closest green space outside your back door. Why not rent a tent and invite the friends over for a camp-out just like the weekend retreat that you took as a kid?
Walk through the past
You don't need to go as far as Clinton Lake to relax. Take a walk through Lawrence's past. More than 25 Lawrence buildings are on the homebound Register, and many more are valuable remnants from the past.
Take a walk along tree-lined streets and note the different styles of early Lawrencian craftsmanship and architecture, such as the stone vernacular, the cottage style, the Italianate and the Victorian baroque. Watkins Community Museum has brochures about historic homes and buildings that give Lawrence the enduring character that it retains today.
Take advantage of the serene little
town outside the hustle and bustle of campus life.
Bathe in bubbles
Taking showers is a product of a society of hustlers and bustlers. Students want quick, five-minute sprays of water to gain more time to get to class in the morning.
Slow down. Fill the tub up with water and pour in some bubble bath. Bubbles, the sweet aroma, a good magazine and some time can do wonders for a tired body and overworked mind. And, if you have the inclination, invite someone to hop in with you.
Look, touch, don't buy
If you find yourself in the dumps, lose yourself in downtown Lawrence.
Leave your money, credit cards and checkbook at home and go on a make-believe shopping spree. Try on some outrageous clothes.
Window shop for albums, furniture, appliances, knickknacks, kitchenware, or anything else that you wish you could buy but can't. Head over to Quantrill's Flea Market and spend a few hours sorting through neat stuff that you'd probably never use.
Students almost never voluntarily get up early enough to watch the sunrise. It's one event that is taken seriously, and even as it was unappeted, potential for relaxation.
Do something new, get up early on Saturday morning or stay up all night. Find a friend or do it by yourself. Find a spot to watch the sun rise swiftly in the morning sky. Watch the colors in the sky change from deep ocean blue to orange to yellow and then to sky blue. Relax, meditate or chat about great philosophical issues. It's in the stillness and beauty of the morning that some find peace from the business and stresses of the day.
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FOOLS ON THE HILL
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1988
★ Giant, decorated cookies provided by the Hawk's Nest bakery on level three of the Kansas Union will be given away in a drawing.
★ 500 batting helmets provided by the KU Bookstores will be given away at the KU Baseball game on April 1.
★ All humor books will be 15% off in the Oread Book Shop on April 1.
WATCH FOR MORE DETAILS IN TOMORROW'S KANSAN.
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